Ends of the Spectrum
by arirang
Summary: A random oneshot HwoaJulia idea I had during my psychology class. Rated T for mild profanity on Hwoarang's part, of course.


**Oneshot, HwoaJulia, random idea I had during my psychology class one day.**

**Enjoy and review!**

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**Ends of the Spectrum**

Strolling down that long-empty hallway, he shines like the god he is.

My heart stops and my eyes seem glued to him. He moves like a warrior with his head raised so boldly like that, his dark eyes gazing levelly in front of him, unruly red hair swish-swishing behind him. He has a half-smile on his face, daring anyone to cross his path. And no one would ever pass before this divine being. He is so beautiful (those eyes!) and so powerful. His rippling toned muscles are evident through his shirt. And he has this aura, this charisma of confidence. The words rise in my throat, but I never let them touch my lips…He is perfect.

Suddenly, those amazing eyes turn to look at _me_.

Immediately, I find a new interest in shoving my calculus textbook back into my locker. I feel my cheeks growing hot. What am I thinking? This is the god of Mishima High himself! I am only a lowly mortal, and this redheaded deity is untouchable and unimaginable. Jin, my fellow outcast and best friend, thinks my crush is pointless. He can always tell what I am thinking, and one day he had found me gazing at this god. He had squeezed my shoulder, chuckling, "Jules, don't bother. He would never, ever like you back, not even notice you. He's too popular, constantly surrounded by his little retinue of whores and jocks."

"Like Xiaoyu?" I had asked, laughing as he blushed a violent scarlet. Xiaoyu has to be the biggest, most annoying slut in the entire school, and she always gets what she wanted. Right now, everyone knows that she wants him, _my_ dark-eyed god.

Poor Jin. I sigh inwardly. He is in love with something beyond his reach, as I am. Perhaps we were doomed from birth, doomed to be the quiet rejects that no one noticed in the back of the class, doomed to adore gods and goddesses, and doomed to find each other, find another lonely soul in need of a shoulder.

Stuffing notebooks into my backpack, I reprimand myself for being so melodramatic. Sure, we are generally ignored, but we _have_ found each other, and that is plenty to be grateful for. It was for him that I had to stay after school today, in fact. He had wanted to ask his grandfather if he could be moved to the senior math class. Jin is a mathematical genius, and while the rest of us struggle, he easily aces all the exams. I, on the other hand, can beat him to a pulp in science. But that's a story for later. Anyway, Jin had been too shy to ask Headmaster Mishima on his own, so he had dragged me along.

I glare at my locker. Jin is so stupid! I had had to jump in during the conference because he was going about it wrongly. _I saved your hide, Jin_, I hiss inwardly. _You owe me._ I think of something I'd like…should I force him to go horseback riding with me at his grandfather's stables? Yes. Mwahaha. I will prevail.

A shadow grows over my backpack. No way. How did he suddenly appear by my side? I had been so immersed in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed him coming up behind me. And why me, me of all lucky mortals he could've approached? No, surely it couldn't be…

"Hwoarang," I whisper in awe.

--

Julia turns to face me in surprise. "Hwoarang," she says, clearly stunned.

I smirk. Is that the best I can do? Think, Hwoarang, think. "Hey, Julia," I say.

She smiles a little. "Hello, what are you doing here so late?" she asks.

"Um." I think rapidly for an excuse. "Mr. Mitchell got pissed at me and gave me one of his fucking lectures after school."

"But…" Suddenly, she smiles wider, and gives a little "hmph" of a laugh. "If you say so."

Her smile. Wow. Her smile makes me forget everything I was going to say. No chick's ever made me feel this way. My mind wanders back to that bitch Xiaoyu. She's like some fucking shadow, clinging to me like she's going to die. And her friend, Miharu, isn't any better. I get mad just thinking about it.

"Hwoarang," Julia says. Suddenly, I want to her to say my name over and over again. It just sounds different, the way she says it, a good kind of different. "Are you angry at me?"

Damn it, did she see me getting mad? "'Course not, Julia," I say. Is that all? Shit. I had this all planned out, spent a fucking _hour_ planning it last night, and now I forget it just 'cause she fucking _smiles_?

What's this chick doing to me? Why does she make me feel this way…a way I've never felt before with my sixteen past girlfriends? I've never even talked to her. She was always just that weird nerd in the back, the one everyone ignores, the teacher's pet that everyone hates. It's only been two fucking weeks, too, since I first noticed her. At first it was her figure (she's got _curves_, man), and then her face (I can say beautiful in four languages!), and then I started _really_ watching her. The more I watched her, the more I started liking her, the way she talked, the way she smiled, the way she laughed. But she was always with that Kazama geek. Man, he'd pay someday…

Back to the present. Small talk, now, Hwoarang, got to think of something…

She beats me to it. Grinning broadly, she asks, "Why did Mr. Mitchell get mad at you?"

Fuck. "Uh, the usual. You know, I talk back to him or shit like that and he gets all pissed." Suddenly, I remember what I was going to ask. "Hey, Julia, are you going out with Kazama? You hang with him a lot."

Julia is surprised. "Jin? No, we're just best friends." She blushes. That is one sexy blush. "Jin likes someone else," she says. All of a sudden, she looks up at me. "I was curious, are you going out with Xiaoyu?"

I make a face. "Hell no. That…"

She holds up a hand. "It's all right. I get the point. I'm surprised you don't like her," she laughs. I love her laugh, so soft and gentle and not like the loud, harsh laughs of the girls that hang out with me. "She's always following you around."

Before I can let Julia know just what I think of Xiaoyu, she shakes her head, zipping up her backpack and closing her locker. "I guess you really don't like her then," she laughs again. She stands up, closes her locker, and turns to smile at me. My knees melt. Why the fuck does her smile always do this to me?

--

I smile, but inside I am furious. Why can't I do anything better than smile stupidly? This is the chance of a lifetime, a dream come true! Hwoarang himself, just me and him, talking together in this deserted hallway alone!

He smells so good up close, like pumpkin spice coffee by a crackling fire, all smoky and spicy and warm. I want this moment to never end. I never knew his look was this _intense_. His eyes seem to gaze straight into my soul, and he is even more beautiful up close.

I was raised in a Native American tribe, with a foster mother half Native American, half Chinese. She always stresses propriety and schoolwork. I have to be ladylike (for some reason, she doesn't mind my martial arts, though), a straight-A student, and a perfect little girl who knows her place.

And yet I am falling in love with this rebel, a Korean redhead who rides his motorbike to school, curses like it's his second nature, flunks his classes and doesn't care, and gets in street fights as a hobby. His excuse to stay after school was Mr. Mitchell, when in fact I had seen Mr. Mitchell talking with Headmaster Mishima after school, inviting him to a luncheon next weekend. He wasn't a bad liar, actually. If I hadn't known he was lying, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell.

This complete renegade probably smokes between classes, visits whorehouses, and has more girlfriends at the same time than I've ever had boyfriends in my life (which actually aren't many). I barely even know him. This is the first time I had really talked to him! We are two very different ends of the spectrum. And yet I am falling in love with him.

If Michelle found out, she would be _livid_.

He is saying something. I hadn't been listening, and now feel extremely embarrassed. "Pardon?" I ask, shame spreading over my cheeks.

--

Looking at her, I suddenly want to bring her close and hold her to me. I want to smell her hair and laugh with her in the rain. I want to be her one and only, the shoulder she cries on and the man whose arms she finds refuge in.

Fuck. Now I'm getting all sappy and shit. See what she does to me? She's got to be magic or something, changing me into this very different Hwoarang, a Hwoarang that's falling in love, _really_ falling in love.

Suddenly, I remember again. I remember what I stayed after school for, struggling to shake off Xiaoyu and Miharu (that took one fucking long time), waiting, hidden in a corner until it was just Julia at her locker.

She doesn't hear me the first time. Was I not loud enough? I take a deep, deep breath and say it again.

"Are you free on Saturday?"


End file.
